A Declaration for a Just Energy Transition for all Life
The vast majority of living beings are not human, and—unless we insist otherwise—countless more will perish from boundless energy development.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. — Martin Luther King Jr.
It's surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth. — David Attenborough
It’s not our technology that’s the problem. It’s growth. — Jason Hickel, author of Less is More.
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WE CAN’T SIT IDLY BY and let “green” industrialization run roughshod over what remains of our natural world. We hereby present this Declaration for a Just Energy Transition for all Life, one to parallel that declared by Indigenous Tribes “to address the pressing issues surrounding the transition to renewable energy and its impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ communities.”
The Declaration for a Just Energy Transition for all Life
Considering that:
Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy is needed to avoid catastrophic consequences of anthropogenic climate change.
Threats to life on Earth from large-scale alternative energy as well as fossil fuel development are serious and well documented.
Global energy demand is expected to increase dramatically and be met, for decades to come, through a combination of fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewable energy.
We, in defense of the living world, declare that:
Society must ensure that the energy transition does not further harm life, given the worsening plight of the natural world.
Affluent countries must reduce consumption and waste to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions and buy time for the world to responsibly transition without added harm to life.
Large-scale energy development poses a dire threat to our planet’s wellbeing, requiring strategic efforts, policies, and procedures to limit energy consumption.
National and international councils representing all life should be created to a) actively participate in planning, implementation, and monitoring of energy development projects; and b) address grievances against agencies, institutions, governments, and corporations that act in ways that harm life.
Rights of Nature Laws must be enacted so that grievances related to energy development can be better addressed through legal channels.
Harms from energy development must be offset by local, regional, and global ecological restoration and conservation programs to ensure no further loss of wild animal and plant populations and their habitats.
Investments, direct and indirect financing, and other financial provisions must be conditional on evidence that they are consistent with this declaration.
We call upon fellow citizens, justice advocates, environmentalists, animal advocates, religious leaders, politicians, news outlets, social media, and the business community to endorse this Declaration.
This all-life Declaration is currently endorsed by (name/title/affiliation)
Tony Povilitis, Ph.D., wildlife biologist, Scale Down
Dusti Becker, Ph.D., conservation biologist. Life Net Nature
Your name…!
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Dear Friends and Supporters,
Please add your name to this Declaration! Share it with others who may want to do likewise. Kindly let us know your decision in the comment section below. If there’s enough interest, we’ll post it as an online petition. Let’s aim to circulate this Declaration widely!
Our shared value is that all life merits our utmost protection and respect!
Appreciatively,
Tony
Just read through the comments. I think everyone agrees we’re in deep denial regarding widespread ecological destruction and we need major change. In my view, we need to get rid of money as a system of exchange and value. So what would we replace money with? I know it may sound simplistic and stupid, but I would replace it with the virtues. This means that being a good human being, as measured according to criteria to be established by a United Nations of Indigenous Elders, is more valuable than being rich or famous. Rationing of the resources humans need for a happy life would be based on a person’s “virtue rating.” Education and culture must be built around the natural world as a precious gift that it is our duty to honor and respect. Each individual would receive early and extensive training on Earth systems and afterwards go through a ceremony, basically a marriage ceremony, where they become one with our planet and its life forms as a living entity. In this ceremony, the vow, as in a marriage ceremony, is to love, cherish, honor, protect and obey these natural Earth systems. This ceremony can be known as the Heiros Gamos ceremony, the Sacred Union.
Glad that Elisabeth Robson clarified her revulsion to the declaration. Good intent is worthy, but the devil is in the details, and the green energy boom doesn't look good for Mother Nature, no matter how one tries to package it. This pig may never be a silk purse and all that sort of thing. She sounds battle weary and realistic, so I can see how a short "grand scheme" would feel naive and offensive. She knows nothing of your/our battles and is clearly kindred spirit, so good to see her reflections. Don Quijote visions fall short when you are battling the dark knights. Still, I am 100% behind the declaration in spirit and intent.